In today's connected world, many software applications are designed to be run in a web browser over the Internet. Technology has enabled people and computers all over the world to be more connected than ever before. Consumer demand is high for Internet-based software applications that provide the information, products, and services that the consumer wants, and fast. It is therefore becoming more and more common for one particular web application to provide functionality based upon data that originated from one or more external sources, such as content from a search engine or maps from a map service, and so on. One technique that is widely used to allow companies to connect their data and other software features is through use of what are called “web services”.
In the most generic sense, a “web service” is merely a function or procedure that can be called over the Internet. Web services are generally platform-neutral, meaning that they can be called from any platform capable of communicating using standard Internet protocols.
Companies such as MICROSOFT®, Google, Amazon.com, eBay, and thousands of other companies have created web services to allow developers to utilize certain data and/or features offered by these companies from within custom applications created by the developer. Many web services require a developer to obtain a developer “web service key” that must be included in each call to a particular web service. Web service keys are most commonly formed as alphanumeric keys, but other formats are sometimes used. By requiring the use of web service keys, vendors can control how much the developer can use (and thus not abuse) the service and/or how much they should charge the developer. Many web API's have a free limited use license or trial period, and some of them require payment for the service. This is another reason that the developer web service key is usually required.